Understanding and managing immune-mediated polyarthritis — a painful inflammatory joint disease in dogs.
Immune-mediated polyarthritis causes severe acute welfare impairment. Affected dogs are stiff, reluctant to move, cry out when handled, and often become severely lame across multiple limbs simultaneously. Fever adds systemic illness to the joint pain. Dogs may be unable to rise, eat, or perform normal activities.
The diagnosis is often delayed because the signs mimic other conditions. Each day of untreated immune-mediated joint inflammation causes additional cartilage damage and pain. Prompt diagnosis through joint fluid analysis and initiation of immunosuppressive therapy is essential for welfare.
Response to treatment is usually dramatic — most dogs improve significantly within days of starting corticosteroids. However, long-term management requires careful steroid tapering to find the minimum effective dose that controls disease, balancing the welfare risks of under-treatment (pain, joint damage) against over-treatment (steroid side effects).